Roger Federer inspired him to halve his body weight: how Indian tech entrepreneur lost 71kg in 2 years
- Heartburn felt like a heart attack to obese Indian tech entrepreneur Dhruv Agarwala. It prompted him to start walking – doing 10,000 steps a day, then 12,000
- With tennis star Roger Federer’s figure as a goal he did strength training too, cut his food portions and quit alcohol. In two years he went from 152kg to 81kg
On a business trip to India in October, 2021, Dhruv Agarwala woke up feeling like he was having a heart attack.
“My heart was racing, I had palpitations. I felt I was going to die,” says the 53-year-old, who managed to check himself into a hospital.
“I kept thinking ‘One day I will lose weight, one day I will become fit,’ until one day I landed in a hospital emergency room. I remember that moment clearly, lying in the hospital bed, when I resolved to take charge of my health.
“It was the wake-up call that I needed,” says Agarwala, an Indian native who has lived in Singapore for the past seven years. At the time he was obese, having reached his heaviest weight of 151.7 kilograms (334 pounds) in February 2021.
After his emergency hospital visit, he went on to lose 71.1 kilograms, taking his weight down to 80.6 kilograms by February 2023. In the process of shedding nearly half of his body weight, he dropped four T-shirt sizes, from 3XL to M.
